1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems for processing and printing images represented by digital data, and more particularly to systems in which the images are represented by and printed using data in a dot matrix or similar format.
2. History of the Prior Art
It is well known in the printer art to scan an image or otherwise generate image data in raster fashion using a single transducer which generates serial bit data as it undergoes successive sweeps along scan lines covering the image. Such data may be stored, subsequently processed as appropriate, and ultimately used to reproduce the image or portions thereof using printers such as of the ink jet or impacting type. In such printers, printing is usually accomplished by applying the data, serially by bit, to the single transducer which may comprise an ink jet nozzle or impacting rod or other print tip as successive scans of a printable medium are made.
As the state of the art has progressed it has been found that the speed of processing and printing image data can be increased by presenting the data in parallel for the simultaneous modulation of a plurality of print elements. Thus the ability to simultaneously print along a plurality of scan lines during a given sweep by the head assembly greatly increases the printing speed and may, for example, enable the printing of a complete line of characters rather than a small horizontal portion thereof with each sweep of the head assembly. However, difficulty is encountered in those situations where the image data is generated by one type of transducer such as that employing a single transducing element and is thereafter to be used in a printer having a head assembly comprised of plural print elements.
It is known in the art to manipulate images so as to provide rotation, mirror images, cut and paste effects and the like. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,678,497 of Watson et al. discloses an arrangement in which a bold character front is generated from a standard character dot matrix by a shift register converter arrangement. To date, however, relatively little has been done to solve the problem of remapping image data for reproduction of the image by a head assembly of different design or configuration than the transducer assembly used to scan the image and generate the image data. A specific need exists in the area where data generated by a single transducing element undergoing successive scans of the image must be remapped for use with a print head assembly requiring simultaneous presentation of data within a plurality of the scan lines.